


The Fire Dancer of Cosmo Canyon

by sanctum_c



Series: The Fire Dancer [4]
Category: Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Cosmo Candle, Cosmo Canyon (Compilation of FFVII), Fire, Fire Powers, Multi, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:27:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27497932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctum_c/pseuds/sanctum_c
Summary: Aeris settles into her new role in Cosmo Canyon with Cloud and Tifa.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough/Tifa Lockhart/Cloud Strife
Series: The Fire Dancer [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2009515





	The Fire Dancer of Cosmo Canyon

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt 'Cosmo Canyon Bonfire'

This eternal bonfire in Cosmo Canyon and what it represented felt - at times - like the culmination of everything that brought Aeris to this point. If nothing else, her obsession with it had doubled and perhaps tripled ever since she clawed her way back to life from deep within the Lifestream, scorching and transmuting herself anew out of her own ashes and the dead remains of the city of her ancestors.

Every night since Avalanche saved the world, it was something more than duty that compelled Aeris to return to the roaring bonfire. Even if she had not become a guardian here, her fascination would have driven her back there. She was never able to stay away for long. For most nights - at least those in Spring, Summer and Autumn - she had company; Cloud and Tifa were always welcome and more than willing to join her beside the flames. But despite her innate warmth, her partners preferred to stay huddled in the room during the Winter months and when the few rain storms the region experienced hit the settlement.

Aeris never held their decision against them - nor did they ever begrudge her obsession; the fire enticed and consumed her attention like nothing else in the world - as much as she loved them both. They both knew that and loved her regardless. She would never deny the best nights were the ones when they would join her; the three of them together as they took their turns tending the fire.

This was her role now, the occupation unlooked for all her life, but somehow perfectly suited for her. It felt something like fate when she discovered its existence, an inevitable discovery given her life long obsession. Fire had been part of her mother's life too. Could mother have done what she did? Perhaps. Even as a child, there was no one she trusted or was otherwise able to answer that question.

She still danced despite her new role as guardian. Her best performances were in the summer months when her audience could linger without suffering the cold; her old moves and routines like a second nature. Whole sequences and flourishes remained unchanged from those conceived during her time back in Midgar. Back when her major goal was to keep an audience watching for as long as possible. And at least now she had mastered her candle trick and performed the routine on larger and larger scales with more and more candles. Same premise as it ever had been - to light a single candle and then flick the flame from one wick to the next.

Her flourishes with pois and staves were little changed, and she delighted in igniting their flammable material at unexpected moments while she whirled and weaved her props around her. But in addition to those old and endlessly familiar routines, Aeris added in new moves and wove them seamlessly into her act. Unlike before, an ever present fire source lay nearby and she drew liberally on the Cosmo Candle for bigger and more dramatic effects.

Fountains and cascades of flames shot up high into the sky; the resulting firery rain safely deflected before it could strike any of her audience. While other artists would use clay, paint, oil as their medium; where people would dance and act; she used fire. Aeris could weave flames effortlessly around herself in displays unlike any other fire dancer on the Planet. In some moments fire flowed like water, dripping and pooling around her; in others she manipulated it like a solid yet malleable substance. Fire responded to her every whim and movement.

It was instrumental in her nemesis', in Sephiroth and Jenova's, defeat. The man, no, the thing that he possessed and forced into humanoid shape fell to her and her companion's efforts. In the end - at the top of the world - even he could not withstand the onslaught she could martial with a snap of her fingers and a gesture. She was one of many guardians of the flame. She would guard the fire with her life. She was the Fire Dancer of Cosmo Canyon.


End file.
